"The vote, at a meeting closed to reporters, came just hours after four more women accused Filner of sexual misconduct, bringing to seven the number of women making such allegations. One of the seven has filed a lawsuit."
"The 70-year-old Democrat, a member of Congress for 20 years before being elected mayor in November, has said he will not resign and that he deserves due process."
"At issue is a 38-year-old California law that limits the amount of money that juries can award for non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000. The initiative filed on Thursday would raise that cap, adjusting the award level for inflation -- currently about $1.1 million -- and allowing subsequent annual adjustments."
"The initiative was submitted to the state attorney general’s office for review on Thursday. It will need more than 504,000 signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November 2014 ballot."
We don't know what they're doing, but the feds are looking into corruption in Orange County -- and it's quite an array of agencies. The state's political watchdog is involved also.
From Tracy Wood and Norberto Santana in the Voice Of OC: "The FBI, Internal Revenue Service, district attorney and U.S. attorney’s office have formed a task force to investigate reports of political corruption in Orange County, the FBI confirmed Wednesday."
"The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces campaign reporting laws and is investigating a majority of the Board of Supervisors, as well as the board of CalOptima, also is working closely with the task force, according to county sources."
"No details were made public about individuals or specific areas of corruption being investigated by the task force, but Los Angeles FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said it was formally created in April."
Speaking of Orange County, candidates in the 73rd Assembly District, a GOP stronghold, are grappling with the Realpolitik of working with majority Democrats.
From Capitol Weekly's Nik Bonovich: "This is arguably the most Republican Assembly District in the state, yet the candidates are not overly partisan in nature. They all have fiscally conservative beliefs, but understand they are running to govern in a state that is heavily dominated by Democrats and are determined to create a more family and business friendly environment."
“I think if you talk to people and I don’t like to put people in corners, we are all Californians and want to have a good job and take care of our family. It’s important to protect economic freedoms and be left alone by the burdensome government,” said Bill Brough, a candidate for the 73rd Assembly District. “Everyone can relate to the American Dream that way. The opportunity is here to do anything you want with your life if you just take it and run with it and that is under jeopardy.”
“Its economic down here, people pay a lot of taxes, businesses have been hit with taxation and regulation and a lot of people have left or contemplated leaving the state because it’s so expensive to do business,” Brough added. “We need to reform the business and tax code to not only keep business, but lure new businesses in for the people out of work.”
A few years ago, lawmakers and leaders agreed to a $7.4 billion prison construction program that was designed to ease overcrowding. But that was before a lot of things happened -- including a crippling recession that sapped state revenues.
From Mike Marois in Bloombereg's: "Today, just a fifth of the money has been spent, violent crime is rising in the most-populous U.S. state and Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, risks contempt charges for resisting a court order to lower inmate numbers still further."
"Brown has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lower court order to trim almost 10,000 from the 119,000 inmates held in the state by the end of the year. Brown says the state has already lowered the count by 43,000 since 2006, spent $1 billion on improving care and conditions, and that obeying the order would force the early release of violent criminals."
“There is no question that there were big problems in California prisons such as overcrowding, lack of health care, and lots of other problems,” Brown, 75, told reporters in January. “But after decades of work, the job is now complete. Our prisons are not overcrowded.”
And from our slender "Old Guys Are Sometimes Really Cool" file comes the story of former President George H.W. Bush, 89, who shaved his head to show solidarity with a leukemia-stricken youngster, the son of one of his Secret Service agents. The photo is perfect.
"When Bush arrived at Walker’s Point this week, he saw that nearly all the members of his security detail had shaved their heads to show solidarity for Patrick and his father, Jon — the boy’s family has asked that their surname not be mentioned."
"So on Tuesday, Bush authorized one of his Secret Service agents to shave his head, according to McGrath."
"The results became public Wednesday after McGrath sent out a brief news release with photographs of Bush and his new haircut, sitting in a wheelchair and holding Patrick on his lap."
